West Virginia sheriff fatally shot, suspect in custody

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. (AP) — A sheriff known for cracking down on the drug trade in southern West Virginia's coalfields was fatally shot Wednesday in the spot where he usually parked his car for lunch, a state official said, and a suspect was in custody.

State Police told Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin that Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum died of his wounds, said his chief of staff Rob Alsop. The suspect, who was also shot, was taken to a hospital in Logan, Alsop said.

The courthouse was evacuated, streets into the city were blocked off and officers held white sheets around the crime scene, Crum's body further shielded by two vehicles.

The shooting occurred within a block of the county courthouse, said Office of Emergency Services head dispatcher Willis Spence. Officials planned a news conference for 6 p.m. in the county in the southwest corner of West Virginia, on the border with Kentucky.

Delegate Harry Keith White, who campaigned with Crum last year, said his friend was shot to death in the same place where he parked his car most days to eat lunch, near the site of a former pharmacy known for illegally distributing. Crum led a drug task force and an initiative called Operation Zero Tolerance, making good on a campaign pledge, White said.

“I think anybody you ask would tell you he was a great guy, always with a positive attitude, always trying to help people,” White said. “It's just a sad, sad day for Mingo County and the state of West Virginia.”

Crum had resigned his post as a county magistrate before launching his sheriff's campaign as a signal of integrity, preferring to run as a civilian rather than an official, White said. He won the primarily handily and ran unopposed in the general election in the fall.

Crum had been a magistrate for 12 years and had previously served as police chief in Delbarton.

White said Crum was dedicated to improving the community and devoted to his grandchildren and adult children.

Delegate Justin Marcum, D-Mingo and an assistant county prosecutor, called Crum “a true friend to the county.”

“He'll be dearly missed,” he said.

Though there is no indication of a direct connection, the killing comes on the heels of a Texas district attorney and his wife being shot to death in their home over the weekend, and officials suspect a white supremacist prison gang. Those killings happened a couple of months after one of the county's assistant district attorneys was killed near his courthouse office.

Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Two days later, Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout about 100 miles from Kaufman. On Monday, judicial officials acknowledged Ebel was freed four years early because of a paperwork error.

Over the last century, 14 prosecutors have been killed, according to news reports and statistics kept by the National District Attorneys Association. At least eight of them were targeted in the line of duty. At least several were slain in incidents unrelated to their jobs, apparently random acts of violence.

The Officer Down Memorial Page says 197 police officers in West Virginia have died in the line of duty, 136 of them from deliberate gunfire.

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